Angels Are Real But Not Like the Paintings
Angels are a hot topic these days for TV and publishers. It isn’t uncommon to hear conversations about whether or not people even believe in angels.
  Discussions, such as that, are a waste of time. But it would be the same in a laboratory if someone asked do we believe in atoms. No one has ever seen them, so why can’t we question it? Growth in the scientific world is built upon collected data. As long as the data supports previous conclusions we can continue accepting it as a fact, not a belief. Believing says, “I hope this or that.” Fact says, “I know this much to be true.”
  In Hebrew the word is malak. In Greek the word is angelos. Both words  mean messenger. I don’t mean I believe they mean messenger, I know from fact they mean messenger. Their most common use in Scripture denotes spiritual and superhuman beings, who are messengers from God. There are only a few books of the 66 books in the Bible that do not mention these messengers (malak or angelos): Ruth, Nehemiah, Esther, the epistles of John and James. The doctrine of these messengers or angels became more distinct in the later periods of Jewish history. Angels are more significant in the New Testament writings. Angels appear more frequently with the coming of Jesus, whom we call Lord.
  According to Jesus (Joshua in Hebrew) angels are personal, sinless, immortal beings, existing in great numbers, and in close relation with individuals and the history of the kingdom of God. They appear to us in human form. We know little of the history of the angels themselves.
  The denial of the existence of Angels comes from attempting to define them with natural or physical laws or facts. If in a research laboratory we attempted to define something in the chemical arena with laws of physics we would produce a lot of confusion and misunderstandings. Any theories derived from this method would be wrong and incomprehensible. The first thing in all growth of knowledge is to establish a basic truth in a particular arena and build on it.
  To comprehend angels or messengers from God, it is important to understand the foundation of their existence is in the spiritual realm, the realm beyond space and time. In my tradition we happen to call that the kingdom of God. Scripture for me is like the laboratory notes of other people. It is their understanding and conclusions built upon what others before them have discovered about the kingdom of God. Some theologians call this revelations, and I agree.
  In Scripture angels have real value to humans. They force us to widen our view and understanding of God's creation. They give us a better insight into the position of Christ. They give us a glimpse into the other world. The are an example of how God's perfect joy works. They also remind us of the high rank of human beings. Angels deliver us messages from God. Not speculations or opinions, but direct revelations of something God wants us to know. In a manner of speaking,  God simply eliminated the middle man (prophet) so there will be no misunderstanding.
Sunday, Dec 23, for the vast majority of Christians around the world is the Angel Sunday of Advent. It celebrates the direct revelation that the Messiah was being born that day. Not if you believe. It declares we believe for a fact the Messiah was born. Period! End of Story! Now build on that information or fact. Thank God for angels. If God had chosen to bring that information through inspiration to a human, we would have studied it six ways to Sunday and split seventy different ways in our interpretation. In the end nothing new would have come out of it except a lot of books stating opinions as fact. Thank God for angels. The angel that resides and oversees us agrees!